Albania, the Muslim World's Most Pro-American State

"FUSHE-KRUJE, Albania—At first glance, you might think it's been a rough year for American-Albanian relations. Last summer, the U.S. ambassador to Albania was accused of helping the country's defense minister cover up the sale of old, ineffective, and prohibited Chinese-made munitions to a then-21-year-old Pentagon contractor supplying the Afghan army and police. In that same week, the Florida-based contractor, by then 22, was indicted; the munitions scandal's Albanian whistle-blower was found dead; the Justice Department discovered that Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security, had failed to disclose his $500,000 lobbying contract with the Albanian government; and, the week I arrived here in July, a car exploded near parliament on George W. Bush Street.

But on an early Sunday morning in this small town north of Albania's international airport, sentiments toward America couldn't be warmer. On the second floor of a salmon-colored building, a leathery old man sips an espresso and smokes a cigarette on the balcony of Bar Kafe George W. Bush. The building's entrance bears a bronze plaque commemorating "Xhorxh" W.'s June 2007 visit, as does the wooden chair in which the president sat. Atop the stairs there hangs a painting of the White House, rendered, like the cafe, in a pallid shade of pink.

Bush's reception in this small, Muslim-majority nation may have been the most enthusiastic he ever received. At a time when his domestic approval ratings were near their nadir, crowds waited for hours outside the cafe to grasp, hug, and kiss the president. Ecstatic throngs chanted, "Bush-y! Bush-y!" as his limousine passed by. Three postage stamps displayed Bush's smiling visage, and a street in Tirana, the capital, was named after him. Parliament unanimously approved a bill authorizing "American forces to engage in any kind of operation, including the use of force, in order to provide security for the president," and Albanian newspaper Korrieri published the sarcastic headline "Please Occupy Us!""

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